Chapter 16: Future and Prospects Are Extremely Important

If the little sparrow knew what her partner was doing right at this moment, she would guaranteed beat the ground in despair, squawking about missing out on a big show, some entertainment, or the like.

However, right now, she was indeed off doing things a senior veteran ought to do—investigating basic conditions and liaising with the Nether Realm inspectors.

To prevent unexpected accidents from occurring during the freshman assessments, an official reaper was actually stationed nearby to handle emergency situations, or rather, to serve as a safety net.

Normally, rookies were definitely unaware of this arrangement; after all, if you knew someone was backing you up, you would feel there was nothing to fear and charge blindly into tasks.

Yet Finny was an old hand who had been hanging around the Nether Realm for decades, so she knew these details inside and out.

As such, she still had to drop by to say hello as a formality, and while at it, report their team’s current situation, right?

Even with a safety net, because they were forbidden from interfering directly, these reapers usually stayed very far from the rookies. If something truly went wrong, it wasn’t impossible that they might fail to rush over in the very first instance.

Thus, the little sparrow needed to check in from time to time to report her team’s movements, making it convenient for this big brother to step in and save the day in critical moments.

Otherwise, if someone was about to kick the bucket while you were still on the way riding a horse… it wouldn’t matter if such a hilarious blunder happened to others, but if it happened to her team, the little sparrow wouldn’t find it funny at all.

“That’s way too unfair; I never heard that ravens had such a huge function…”

Panting as he sat on the ground, Mikado looked at the young girl in front of him, who was originally on par with him in combat ability but was now beating him up without even breaking a sweat, feeling thoroughly depressed.

A buff machine plus shared mana bar plus spiritual energy launcher and so on… a raven’s role in combat assistance was almost excessively overpowered; why had his own sparrow never shown any of these?

“It’s because you didn’t listen properly in class yourself, okay?”

Belladonna rolled her eyes at him, continuing to explain the various aspects of ravens to him; although their languages differed, it was purely a one-way issue, as ravens were completely able to understand and comprehend human language.

“Ravens are born with incredible spiritual power control, and the applications of their abilities are vast. These things are merely the tip of the iceberg; you still have a lot to learn!”

“Does Finny know how to do these too? She’s a bone sparrow, not a spirit raven.”

Belladonna froze, as this question genuinely fell into her blind spot of knowledge—everyone else’s raven was a spirit raven, so where did this bone sparrow of yours pop out from? She had no idea what its deal was either.

“Actually, while she isn’t here right now, what I’m about to say might sound a bit harsh…”

Possessing the upbringing of a young lady, Belladonna deeply despised the despicable behavior of speaking ill of others behind their backs; thus, thinking of what she was about to say, she felt quite uncomfortable inside.

“You’ve seen what ravens can do; she’s only a bone sparrow after all, inherently inferior to spirit ravens. Furthermore, many things are unknown, and who knows if she can achieve them…”

Belladonna didn’t continue with her remaining words; speaking up to this point was already harsh enough, and Mikado wasn’t an idiot, so he could definitely understand her meaning.

They were schoolmates after all, and their relationship wasn’t particularly distant, plus they would serve as each other’s preferred teammates in the future. Belladonna truly had Mikado’s best interests in mind when offering this piece of advice.

“Heh, say no more, I get you. But you’re an honor student, and I’m a low-performing student; that’s reality, right?”

If a low-performing student like me doesn’t pick her, wouldn’t that mean no one would pick her at all? Since we’re both low-grade horses anyway, why not mess around together? Wouldn’t that be pretty unique and fun?

“Don’t worry, I won’t drag us down. What Finny lacks, I’ll make up for it myself.”

Patting his chest with such an assurance, seeing Mikado’s attitude, Belladonna didn’t want to say too much more. Since it was the person’s own choice, she would still respect it.

“Alright then, let me whisper a secret to you: as a reaper grows and the soul contract reaches a certain stage, they can actually transform into human form, you know?”

When that time comes, there won’t be any language barrier issues anymore. Speaking up to here, Belladonna even stroked Hydra’s feathers with great pride, showing off this top-quality spirit raven procured by her family.

“Take my Hydra, for instance; he will definitely turn into a super handsome guy. A raven’s human form is fixed, but its appearance is linked to its original form’s looks~”

Whether a bone sparrow had this capability was hard to say, but even if it could, imagining that little creature’s horrifying, disaster-level looks, what would it look like after transforming…

“Big sister, is it still in time for me to swap my spirit raven now?”

“Wait, not you?”

Mikado waved his hand with a grin, signaling that he was joking. Human transformation or whatever wasn’t important; it wasn’t like finding a partner, and besides, if that little sparrow could transform…

“Then I really want to see how ugly Finny could turn out to be. Either way, it’ll definitely be full of laughs.”

“As long as you’re happy.”

She rolled her eyes at Mikado, though Belladonna actually had a question buried in her heart for quite a while: why did Mikado name the little sparrow Phinitia?

To ravens, names held no real meaning, as they could instinctively perceive who the interlocutor was addressing; names were merely human culture and habits.

If you called out loudly to one of them in front of a flock of ravens, you didn’t need to shout any name—a single ‘hey’ would suffice, and only the one you were calling would respond to you.

Even if the others turned their heads, it was just to see what nonsense you were up to; ravens possessed the ability to distinguish who was being addressed and targeted in every conversation.

Therefore, under conditions where names themselves were unimportant, ravens usually received their own names from reapers; although no one knew what they thought of it, Belladonna believed it should carry extraordinary significance to them.

So, with Finny being so small and clearly a male bone sparrow, wouldn’t giving him a name that sounded female in every way feel very strange?

“Ah? Because it’s fun?”

“Huh?”

“He’s a male bone sparrow, yet has a girl’s name—isn’t that pretty fun?”

Mikado maintained that half-smiling, wicked expression on his face, and what came out of his mouth genuinely sent a chill down Lady Belladonna’s spine.

“Of course, if he can transform into a human, becoming a super ugly little boy, and then having a very sweet girl’s name… Holy crap, I can’t even begin to imagine how hilarious that picture would be!”

“Your personality is genuinely disgusting, you know that?”

Belladonna rarely lost her composure, swearing without regard for her elegance, while silently expressing sympathy for that poor bone sparrow in her heart—your partner’s psyche is already quite twisted; hopefully your mindset stays healthy when the time comes.

[Achoo! Which bastard is talking about me?]

Finny, who was communicating with the supervisory reaper’s raven, felt an unexplained chill, sensing that someone seemed to be speaking ill of her.

[Whatever, it doesn’t matter; plenty of people speak ill of me anyway… Who told me to look like this~ Though among bone sparrows, well, to be honest, I’m actually on the uglier side too.]

Apologizing to the raven she had suddenly left hanging, the little sparrow resumed her official duties, continuing to communicate with the other party regarding task synchronization.

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